Lucrecio and Ajax---Part Two

Uncle Milton was at the police station when Lucrecio and Officer Max arrived.

´I guess you´re coming to live with me now Lucas´ Uncle Milton said. ´Don´t worry, you get used to the trains rolling by. In fact,´ he said with a gleam in his eye, ´Sometimes the click clack, click clack just gets down in your soul and you cant help but shake and shake and shake and dream of where the trains are going!!´

Lucrecio was silent on the long drive back over the Silver River to his Uncle Milton´s shack by the railroad tracks. He had only been there a couple times before with his parents, and scarcely remembered a thing about the place other than the fact that there was nothing else around for miles. Uncle Milton could rev up the engines as high as he wanted with no neighbours to complain and the winding roads and abandoned lands around the railroad tracks were perfect for test driving the racer he had been working on for years.

So Lucrecio was worried that changing schools and making new friends would be more difficult when your Uncle lives like a hermit with his run down cars and hot rod dreams and no real job in a shack by the railroad tracks.

As they made the long drive home on Highway 61 along the railroad tracks, Lucrecio took out the gold pocket watch, tapping on the cracked glass to see if it would start ticking again.
´Hey that’s a nice watch Lucas. Where´d ya get that?´Asked Uncle Milton.
´Ajax found it for me!´ said Lucas.
´Oh, I see, okay Lucas!´ Uncle Milton didn’t ask any more questions, he figured the boy was still in shock after losing his parents, and maybe one way of coping was to invent imaginary friends.
A Southern Pacific train raced noisily down the tracks next to the Highway, its whistle blowing up in the distance. Uncle Milton was slowly catching up with the engineer as they read the different boxcars passing by.
The watch did not start ticking again, but each time he tapped it, his bones twitched with a light spark of energy, like there was some electrical connection between the watch and his body, and his tapping was sending an old time telegraph or Morse code through his nerves to some unknown destination.
Suddenly he heard a strange sound above the click clack of the train´s wheels.
´Caw!! Caw!!´ Looking out the window, Lucrecio saw Ajax sitting on top of one of the boxcars.
´Look Uncle Milton!´
´Yeah? You know this crow?´
´That´s Ajax!!´, said Lucrecio, and Uncle Milton just shook his head and smiled.

Ajax flew up onto the hood of Uncle Milton´s car as it crunched to a stop in front of the tiny shack by the railroad tracks.
´Hey, what the heck!!´ Uncle Milton chased Ajax away from the car.
´Caw!! Caw!!´ Lucrecio looked pleadingly at Uncle Milton, who was rubbing his hands together with worry.
´Well, they say crows are just like flying dogs. I don’t know what we´re gonna feed ´im, but I guess he can stay here with us Lucas.´